


Day After Death

by bylaude



Series: Summer Wind [2]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Bratty Sothis, Chaotic Dumbass Byleth, Cool Big Sis Byleth, Developing Friendships, Female Friendship, Female My Unit | Byleth, Gen, Pre-Time Skip, but that's not what I was going for, could be byleth/sothis if you put your shipping goggles on and squint real hard I guess, lmao I just realised there's another fic with the Ghost of Garreg Mach, pre-release, two idiots with issues trying to get accustomed to each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2019-07-16
Packaged: 2020-06-29 18:48:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19836352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bylaude/pseuds/bylaude
Summary: Byleth gets a new roommate... Except this one lives in her head. [Pre-Release, Pre-Timeskip]





	Day After Death

Someone is in the room.

This is the first thought she has as Byleth awakens. Being a light sleeper, the fog of sleep clears quickly as she assesses her surroundings. A bed beneath her, fresh sheets and a soft pillow. Right, she arrived at the monastery the day before with her father…

So who the hell is in her room now?

 _Don’t trust the church_ , her father’s words echo in her head. Byleth waits, laying as still as the dead and listening to the sound of rifling objects. This person is searching her room.

 _Well, that’s annoying,_ she thinks, _A petty thief? What can I have that anyone would want?_

Byleth contemplates peaking an eye open to see who it is, unconcerned with whatever they may take, before the presence abruptly moves to her side, making her hair stand. The sound of breathing wipes her mind of all previous thoughts and she _lunges_ , pushing her knife against a pale white throat.

Byleth stares. Green eyes and green hair, weaved into long, thick braids. The sound of fabric and metal is loud in the silence as the person shifts.

“Do you always sleep with that beneath your head?” Sothis asks, wide-eyed but not too terribly concerned with the blade at her neck.

Baffled, Byleth lowers her hand and lets Sothis drift away, watching as the girl-child tinkers aimlessly with her meagre possessions and the trinkets provided by the church. She’s struck with a pervasive sense of sheer surrealism, like she’s deep in some fever dream and hasn’t fully awakened yet.

 _This is just like that time I ate those damned mushrooms from that shady-ass merchant,_ Byleth thinks blandly, collapsing back into her pillow like dead weight. Her eyes trail after the strange girl as she opens the trunk where Byleth had haphazardly tossed her clothes and armour in, fiddling with the fabric and breeches like she’s never seen them.

Maybe she never did. Sothis claimed to be very old and asleep for a long, long time. Maybe this is a new age for her.

Assuming she _is_ real.

 _I’m really losing it, huh,_ Byleth thinks blankly, growing less confused and more bored when Sothis does nothing particularly noteworthy as she saunters about the room. _All those psychoactive mushrooms finally got to me. That shitty merchant. They’re all conmen._

“Do you plan to just lie there?” Sothis asks abruptly, picking up a mirror on the vanity and staring into it with undue fascination. She looks at the mercenary through the reflection. “Didn't the Archbishop request to see you? You’d be giving a rather bad impression if you’re late.”

Byleth rolls over and glances out of the window, groaning a bit at the dark sky that greets her. “I’m not expected until, like, another two hours… Besides that, why are you even here?”

“What do you mean? Did I not make myself clear?” Sothis puts down the mirror, tilting her head at Byleth and staring at her owlishly. There’s something uncomfortably inhuman about this action and Byleth grimaces at this, feeling rather like she wants to toss a pillow in the girl’s face just to wipe that look off. It’s too bad she only has one pillow and thus unwilling to sacrifice it. “I did say I will be watching over you from now on.”

“Yeah, uh, that,” Byleth sighs, belatedly reaching beneath her pillow blindly to find the scabbard for her dagger. She sheathes it lazily, tossing it on the nightstand without ceremony. “I didn’t think literal watching. In my sleep. Actually, that’s bloody creepy, so don’t do that. And I don’t mean here-here… Why are you _here_ and not back in…whatever the hell was the place where we first met?”

Sothis’ attention has already diverted. She tip-toes to reach the bookshelf, pulling a tome free. “You can’t _expect_ me to be there all the time, can you?” She sighs, flipping through the pages idly, “It’s awfully droll.”

“Actually, yes, that’s what I expect,” Byleth frowns, getting annoyed. “Just… Go back in my mind or something.”

Sothis pauses thoughtfully. “Your mind?”

“Yeah."

The girl is silent for a long while. “That can’t be it. I’ve been asleep for so long. It can’t be your mind. You’re not even very old, are you?”

“I never thought I’d ever be in a situation where a child tells me I’m young,” Byleth mutters, feeling like she’s dissociating more and more with every passing second. She groans. “Look, can you just, I don’t know, go back to sleep or something?”

Ponderous mood gone, Sothis scoffs. “I’ve slept for long enough,” she declares imperiously, jutting her nose up. Wow, bratty. Byleth sits up. Tossing the pillow is suddenly a very appealing option. Instead, she beams, clapping her hands with faux cheer.

“Oh, good for you!” Then scowls. “ _I_ haven’t.”

Sothis lowers the book and studies her, oddly serious all of a sudden. Byleth frowns and meets her assessing stare, perturbed but unwilling to back down.

“Do you feel strange, lass?” She asks out of nowhere. Byleth can’t help snarking.

“About the little girl who’s invited herself in my room while I was asleep? Very.”

“Do not take this lightly,” Sothis says sharply, eyes narrowed. “I’ll ask once more. Do you feel unwell? Anything strange? Tell me.”

Byleth thinks about it. She must be referring to the incident yesterday, when she took an axe to her back before time rewound. The more she deliberates on it, the less real it feels. Physically, she feels whole and fine, and none of those kids whom she’d saved even remember such a thing happening, but it still doesn’t feel _right_. The flesh on her back prickles when she focuses on the memory of the blade cleaving her spine in half, a phantom sensation that crawls along her skin and produces a deep ache in her bones.

She knows what happened, but it doesn’t feel _real_. It doesn’t help that no one recalls it, save for the phantom child in front of her.

“What a loaded question,” Byleth scoffs. “For all I know, you’re not even real. Does my hallucination really have any business asking me if I’m fine?”

“How do you think I feel about this?” Sothis scowls, but on her young face it lacks any intimidation factor and looks like a child’s pout. She snaps the book shut, putting it aside on the study desk. “You’re my only connection to the physical world. If you doubt my existence when you’re the only one to be even aware of it, what does that make me?”

“Oh, nice, the guilt trip card,” Byleth rolls her eyes, tossing off her sheets. “Is that why you’ve been messing with my things at this ungodly hour? To solidify your presence, to feel real?”

Sothis falls silent. It’s ironic how telling the lack of words can be. As she gets up and stretches, Byleth regrets looking at her face when she sees how despondent the girl is.

_Fantastic, be an asshole to the kid. Good going, Byleth, job well done._

Why is she even doing this, anyway? Just because she was woken up? Snuck on? Caught off guard? None of those are new to her, nor do they bother her. Byleth has always been good with going with the flow and adapting like a chameleon, but she finds it near impossible to do so this time.

 _It’d be odder if I can simply go along with this,_ she reasons with herself, which is ironic because she knows she’s being more than a bit unreasonable with Sothis.

There’s really no point in picking a fight with Sothis. She knows that they’re in the same boat, inexplicably connected in some strange manner neither of them truly understand. Despite her declining faith in the state of her sanity, Byleth knows logically that Sothis must be real. No amount of mushrooms could’ve made her hallucinate _dying_ , not with such clarity and focus.

More than that, Sothis saved her. As a mercenary, Byleth doesn’t have much honour in her, to her father’s consternation, but even someone like her knows when she’s in another’s debt. The least she can do for Sothis is to coexist with her. It’ll make life easier.

 _Coexist with a ghost girl in my head_ , Byleth repeats it in her head, wondering yet again about her sanity. She shouldn’t be taking it so calmly, but she is anyway. _It hasn’t really hit me yet. Great. Hope that I don’t time my eventual meltdown when I’m in front of someone._

She sighs. An apology is in order. She can start with that and go from there.

“Okay, I’m sorry, that was unnecessary. You saved my life and I’m giving you flak just because you woke me. For the record, I feel fine. I’m well and alive and I have you to thank for it.”

Not seeming to hear her, Sothis is still quiet and unmoving, staring glumly at the floorboards, which unnerves Byleth because, despite having only endured her antics for a grand total of five minutes, she’s already used to the girl chattering and fluttering about like a particularly bothersome bird.

Without thinking too deeply on it, Byleth raises a hand and pats her, ruffling her voluminous hair. Sothis flinches, indignant and red-faced.

“W-what do you think you’re doing?”

“What?” Byleth drawls, having already moved on and now pulling her gear out of the trunk and tossing it on the bed. “You looked bummed, so I thought to cheer you up.”

“By what manner? Treating me like a child? How impertinent. I am a lot older than you, you understand?”

Byleth stares at her, then laughs. “You’re _so_ not cute.”

Sothis opens her mouth to retort, only to stare in silent bafflement as Byleth pulls off her night clothes without warning. She throws it aside, grabbing her tunic and pulling it over her torso.

“Oh my,” Sothis utters. “You have no shame, do you?”

Byleth glances up from affixing her wristguards, brows raised. “I’m not about to apologise for undressing in my room, Sothis. My earlier attitude aside, you’re _still_ technically being invasive.”

Sothis has no response to that, blatantly watching her as she pulls her tights and shorts over her legs. Byleth can’t find it in herself to care, though it is a bit weird to have someone, much less a child, scrutinise her so closely while she’s dressing.

“I was under the impression you wished to return to sleep,” Sothis says, slowly draping herself on the chaise longue like an oversized cat. “It’s still another two hours before your appointment.”

“No point trying to go back to sleep after you’ve woken me up,” Byleth rolls her eyes, pulling both heeled boots on and adjusting her knee guard. She buckles the rest of her armour on, tossing her hair over her shoulder. “May as well explore.”

“Explore?” Sothis asks, a spark of interest in her eyes as she watches Byleth retrieve a basin of water left by a servant the previous night, kept sanitary with a spell.

“Yeah. That’s what you do when you’re somewhere unfamiliar,” Byleth snarks, using a wet cloth to wipe the sleep out of her eyes.

“I _know_ what the word means,” Sothis says sharply, huffing. “How rude.”

With her mouth full of water, Byleth just favours the girl with an arched look, before spitting it out into the basin. “Then don’t sound so confused. It’s normal to want to explore. I myself am more accustomed to villages and forests, even cities, so this place is every bit new to me as it is to you.”

Without ceremony, she picks up the container of water, intending to discard it, and kicks Sothis’ foot as she passes. “C'mon, get up.”

“Not a civilised bone in your body,” Sothis sighs, but surprisingly heaves herself off the seat and follows after. “What is it?”

Byleth raises her brow, her back to the door. “What do you mean what?” She pushes down on the knob with her elbow, stepping back and into the hallway. “We’re gonna explore together, stupid.”

**Author's Note:**

> Byleth and Sothis don’t immediately get along. Like, most people already have issue with sharing their bedroom, you expect me to believe Byleth would immediately be chill with sharing her headspace with some loli?
> 
> But they’ll be as thick as thieves soon because they’re both dumb. Sothis can only interact with the physical world when she consciously focuses and cannot stray away far from Byleth. They test the boundaries of this off-screen by pranking Lorenz.
> 
> Sothis gets literally known as the Ghost of Garreg Mach after that.
> 
> (First day and you’re already up to no good smh Byleth)


End file.
